Driving with Dan

Dan and I set off in his car this morning for Bucharest at the very civilized hour of 8:30 a.m. I suggested we stop at the clinic and pick up Gaby but he didn't seem to think it was a good idea.

Thank goodness Dan is a good driver because the way people pass can get kind of scary. We saw lots of people selling fruits and vegetables on the side of the road especially tomatoes, potatoes, and red onions. We also saw people selling plastic bottles of must (fermented grape juice.) In fact, I saw a sign in a restaurant window today that said, "Avem Must" which I assume means "We have must." (Kind of like when Nouveau Beaujolais appears the end of November!)

When I arrived at my hotel (the Rembrandt in old town Bucharest), I saw lots of stalls with blue awnings. There were about 2 blocks of stalls with different crafts - jewelry, clothes, etc. It was fun to look and since my suit case is so much lighter on the way home I bought a few small things. I also went to the Piata Unirii shopping center to the Diverta store and bought a 3 CD set of music for children in Romanian that I can mail when I get home.

So I just finished typing the team journal (ok, I cheated as I cut and pasted from my blog for the last week.) I also updated the list of the childrens' birthdays. Here they are:

Alexandra                8/16/02

Paula                      9/17/06

Cristi                       12/23/06

Alina                       11/11/07

Ionut                      12/12/07

Ioan                       1/3/08

Lea Celine                2/4/08

Marius                     3/12/08

Gabriela                  3/15/08

Mihaela                   3/15/08

Maria Cleopatra        7/26/08

Andreea                  12/13/08

Daniela                    2/17/09

Petre                       4/18/09

Roxana B.                6/3/09

Andreea B.              6/3/09

Daria Roxana           9/30/09

Raul                        10/19/09

Nicoleta                  11/29/09

Ana Maria               2/10/10

Costel                     4/16/10

And here are some pictures from the road and from the area around the hotel. Wish me luck with my travels home tomorrow. I've charged my computer for movies, my iphone for music, and my Kindle for books. So I should be all set for the long journey.

The window of a wedding store near the hotel (took this for my nephew's Ian's fiancee, Lauren)

Here you can see how the lanes are and how people pass

Avem must

For sale

From a van belonging to some kind of NGO in Bucharest

View from my hotel window - the room is tiny but fine

View from another window in the hotel (I'm on the 6th floor)

Stalls with the BCR bank in the background

There is a glass laid over some ruins and I took this picture where you can see the ruins and the building reflected in the glass

My favorite church in this neighborhood

Shopping arcade - many of the cafes have narghiles (water pipes)

Last Day at the Clinic

On Steve and Lorraine's last day, Steve quoted Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened." It has been a wonderful 3 weeks with many smiles. Somehow the leaking shower at the hotel and the overheated play rooms get forgotten and it is the time with the children that is most memorable. I did feel badly that I couldn't spend as much time with some of the babies this week but you just do what you can. I found out the next team member is in her mid-20s so I'm sure she'll have lots of energy compared to me. I am pleased to report that I stayed healthy all 3 weeks. If I get sick on the way home, who cares.

A bit of political news before I talk more about the babies. I heard the demonstration earlier this week made the US news. Today there was an authorized rally of union members in Piata Victorei. The President was supposed to speak and didn't show up. So the lunch time news was full of the unauthorized march from the square to the president's residence, "Palatul Cotroceni." Dan said he thought he saw police men as part of the march. Sounds like the issues are the same as before - concerns about salaries etc. People are worried that it will be more difficult to survive on less money in the winter when expenses are higher than in the summer. 

The weather today was not as warm as yesterday but we put jackets on the non-mobiles and took them outside with the mobiles for a little over an hour this afternoon. Miha made fewer escape attempts over the fence BUT later in the mobile room she did demonstrate that not only can she climb on to the window sill she can open the window. I was in the room alone with the kids and I didn't know I could move that fast across a room.

Nicoletta is still in isolation but was all smiles whenever I went in to see her. She was making noises and would grab for my face and hair. Ana Maria and Costel are still in isolation as well and sleeping a lot but I did catch each of them awake once today. Ana Maria is quite the charmer - not only does she smile she practically laughs. I wasn't able to spend much time with Raul but I think Dan has been in with him some. Fortunately Maria Cleopatra is a regular visitor to the play room so that is great. Except for this afternoon at 6:00 Mirella the aide seemed to think I could take Maria back to her room. I actually did try and lift her and there was no way I was going to be able to get her off the ground and me off my knees without doing major damage to both of us. So I went and got an aide.

We had our good bye party as usual during afternoon nap time. Dr. Delia wasn't working today so I didn't get to say good bye to her. Instead, we had Andreea, Ion and Miha as special guests. I'm surprised they didn't get tummy aches with all of the stuff they ate. Then when we were outside they were eating apples and then Jalina brought them cookies. I like that I'm getting to know the aides names better and talking to them a bit more. Mind you "talking" is their limited English and my limited Romanian but still we can get a few things across. I tried to take as many pictures of the aides with the children as I could so I can send copies after I get home.

I did go through all of the babies' journals and wrote an email to everyone whose email addresses I could find giving them this blog address and telling them that volunteer numbers are down. Whatever we can do to get more volunteers here is great as the children will make more progress with more attention.

I sure hope someone does a blog with pictures in the next few months! Meanwhile, enjoy these last ones.

Our good bye party - that is me, 2nd from the left - glad the picture is from far away

Petre and Daniela with the stability ball

Ion at the good bye party

Maria Cleopatra

Marius loves the ball - I love that smile

Mihaela, the next Nadia Comeneci

Gabita looking at the sunlight

Roxanan and Andreea

Ionutz

Alina listening to me knock on the rocking chair arm

Roxana and Andreea outside in their matching jackets

Malika helping Daniela on the teeter totter with Andreea

Daniela

Petre and Ion - hanging out eating our apples

Ready or not, here I come

Marius

Lea Celine - so busy and so smart

Petre waving "pa"

Alina actually pulled Petre's hair when he was behind her on the swing

Mihaela

Ion eating a cookie

Gaby and Daniela

Gabita almost fell asleep on the swing

Cristi

Roxana

Outside!

Much to my surprise, we got to go outside for about an hour this afternoon. Of course, I got shoes on all of the non-mobiles (except Ionutz and Maria Cleopatra) and then the aides changed diapers and took the shoes off so I had to put all the shoes back on. Not as easy as it sounds due to wiggling children. It was quite pleasant out.

 All of the non-mobiles took their 3:00 bottles without a problem - the first time in awhile. The twins who started out eating well have gotten kind of fussy about it again - mostly Roxana. Of course it is always a challenge to get Alina to eat. And Gaby who used to eat laying on her back on her own now has to sit on my lap to eat. Thank goodness for Cristi who holds his bottle and chugs away. I think I forgot to mention yesterday that Mihaela brought bread and spreadable cheese for the mobiles who sounded like they liked it. And I bought honey cheerios at the clinic's request as the mobiles have been eating them with their fingers. It is good to see them getting more than bottles. Today instead of yogurt the non-mobiles had pureed banana and loved it. I put Gaby in the jumperoo, rolled up her sleeves and put a bib on her and she ate it with her fingers (since she refuses a spoon.)

Costel had a blood and urine sample today and was having his temperature taken. I think they are checking on his progress. Ana Maria's progress is quite noticeable but it is a little less so with Costel.

Dan and I went to Barlad for dinner tonight. I would have skipped going into town but I wanted to get some last minute yogurt, wipes, etc. for the babies. I figure since there is just one volunteer coming on the next team that she may not be able to get things like this. I decided to write her a note and have Dan give it to her welcoming her to Tutova and giving her my blog and email address in case she has questions. We can be her virtual team!

BTW, I am just about finished with the "Dracula is Dead" book and while the title is weird it is actually quite interesting. Mihaela and Dan want to read it so if you are here and looking for it and it isn't in the cupboard at the clinic ask them for it.


Still seeing lots of evidence of harvest activity. Machines in the fields and carts going by with corn and watermelons and various things in them. Lots of haystacks emerging as well. Being a city person, all of this country side activity is quite new to me. This morning I heard this sound while I was getting ready and for the life of me couldn't figure out what it was. As I walked down to breakfast I realized it was the owner's cow mooing in the field behind the hotel. (To my sisters: At least I knew it was a cow not a horse.)

Can't believe tomorrow is my last day. Hope someone else is here that does a blog with pictures as I will miss these little ones.

Ana Maria looked quite fetching today in her pink polka dots

Cristi has taken to pushing this chair around the room - his way of practicing walking I guess

Lea Celine carried this doll around most of today

Ionutz does not like the jumperoo

Gaby in the swing outside

Petre smiling for the camera; Alexandra doesn't like the camera much these days

Check out the Popa twins, Miha and Gaby, with two fingers in their mouths

Andreea

Roxana (does it count as twin time when they are back to back in the swing?)

Alina a few seconds after Andreea pulled her hair

Ion looks great in these colors

Ion and Petre playing with the stability ball I turned over today after using it to exercise in my room for the last 3 weeks!

Two Days Left

It is hard to believe I only have two days left at the clinic. I found out today that there will be only one person on the next team, someone who hasn't been here before. There were supposed to be 2 people and sounds like one person had to cancel at the last minute. It actually crossed my mind to see if I could stay for another week but I think I need to get home for multiple reasons, like making money so I can come back. Apparently the team after this next one has 2 people, then Nov. has 6 people, then 2 people in Dec. and after that I don't know. I am worried about these small teams, especially with new babies and others who need attention.

Before I forget, there has been a big scandal with the government all over the news. Apparently  a vote was taken on a pension bill that included among other provisions raising to the retirement age from 63 and 65 for women and men respectively to 65 and 67.  One political party left the chamber so only 80 people were there to vote, yet the vote results were 160 in favor. They were talking about redoing the vote - don't know what got decided. At lunch today, the tv news was full of info on a protest in the Piata Revolutie by trade unions about pensions and salaries and who knows what else. Looked like there were lots of people.

Mihaela was at the clinic today and picked up Delia at lunchtime and brought her back. I didn't see them during the afternoon but expect they were with the mobiles. Delia showed me her backpack with all of her school work at lunch time. She had many papers that said "foarte bine" (very good) on them. In free time, they can draw and she had done some excellent drawings. She is probably the only child at her school that has drawn a picture of an orphanage and orphans. The good news is the orphans were happy.I asked Delia what her favorite thing was about school today and she said religion class. Romanian Orthodox is the state religion so religion is taught in the public schools. If a child isn't Romanian Orthodox, the priest or whomever at their church needs to write them a note to get them excused from the Romanian Orthodox religion class. No separation of church and state here.

The 6:00 bottle came a bit early today so I went into the mobile room and hung out with Miha, Lea Celine, Alina and Andreea for a bit, and brought Gaby with me.I tried the singing and dancing routine to keep them amused and keep Miha from climbing up the radiator to the window sill and then tried bouncing them on my legs and then ran out of ideas. Plus it was time for dinner so I was ready to leave. Unfortunately, the aide had locked the door to keep the kids from escaping as they are known to do. So I waited for about 5 min. or so until Jalina walked by and I got her attention. BTW, the aides have been really good about helping me feed the children at bottle and yogurt time.

I've started writing in the childrens' journals that we leave for the upcoming volunteers. It is always fun to read back, especially to entries I wrote when I was last here in February. Some children have made good progress and for others it is very slow. I was pleased to see Cristi Daniel who has Down's syndrome becoming more active and then I realized he is 4 years old and probably not even at 1 year developmentally. Still, as long as they are doing better that is the most important thing.

The day started out foggy and then became quite sunny and pleasant. The children are being dressed in their warmer clothes though so I don't expect any more outdoor time. I have gotten away with opening the window a bit in the non-mobile play room. What are they going to do, fire me?!

Costel

Raul was withdrawn at first today but then he started to respond and smile a bit

Andreea is doing really well with standing

Gaby is the only one I let get near Maria Cleopatra

Cristi talking to Winnie the Pooh

Alina

Gaby and Nicoletta - and the penguin

Cristi behind the rocking chair - again

Tv coverage of the protest in Bucharest

Roxana admiring her hands

Ionutz

Marius visited the non-mobile room briefly this afternoon

Gaby (my flash was doing something strange)

Andreea dancing

Miha did not want her picture taken today